It has a 64 track sequencer and no MIDI on the actual unit. The Akai Professional MPC Studio is powered by your computer via USB. The Akai Professional Studio does not have an interface on the unit, you will need to have an external interface. Many people have said this MPC was a watered down version of the Renaissance, the biggest issue between the Studio version and the Renaissance version is that the Renaissance version comes with a built in interface. The whole unit is very slim and can fit in one of your gig bags or backpack/laptop bags. The back lit screen I decent but not great, it will however let you create right from the screen without the need to have to look at the computer screen. MPC Swing, and Note Repeat are some of the patented functions of the MPC brand and they are also included on the Akai Professional Studio. All of your favorite MPC controls including the transport controls are on this unit as well.

Of course this MPC has the world famous 16 MPC pads, and each of them are back lit. The Akai Professional can host VST plug-ins and allow you to tweak those plug –ins in real time. You can use the Akai Professional on a PC or Mac, it is very portable and for it to be only 600 dollars it could be the best MPC option for a lot of musicians and DJ’s.

It comes stocked with over 6GB of sounds and it supports VST plug ins. I had the pleasure of working with it twice. The Akai Professional MPC Studio is the newest line of MPC from Akai and it came out this year.

Mpc studio